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I need a Zen moment.  Life is going so fast!  Back to school, Halloween, Remembrance Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas planning all get jumbled together and come so fast!  I turn to my EQ to play a little and give my busy mind a rest.  How about you?  Do you use your EQ to unwind?  Zen to me means repeating patterns that intersect to create new patterns that I can choose to print, stitch, or deconstruct into pieces to meld together with other pieces.  I do love my stitches, so I tend to create in EQ and see how I can add stitches to my quilting to create that Zen feel. Open your EQ8 program then create a new project and name it ‘ZEN WITH EQ8′.   In the upper right corner of the screen, click on the block worktable icon to begin your design process.  The default setting in EQ

EQ8 has lots of add-ons available. Some include blocks, some include quilts, and some include fabrics! Here’s how to download and install add-ons and if you have any trouble, you can always contact us. Once your add-on is installed, depending on the specific add-on, there are different ways to access it. If the add-on includes quilts… Click Open an existing project then choose a project from the list and click OK. The quilt above is from Heather Valentine Four Seasons Spring Quilts. If your add-on includes blocks… Click Libraries > Block Library Then you can click either Edit to Block Worktable, Select All Blocks, or Add to Sketchbook. If you don’t see any blocks make sure your Block Library is fully open. The blocks above are from Heather Valentine Four Seasons Spring Quilts. If your add-on includes fabrics… Click Libraries > Fabric Library If you don’t see any fabrics make sure your

The Swath tool is fun to experiment with but can also make some awesome blocks! The Swath tool draws a stylized stroke surrounding a line. The line or “spine” of the stroke can be edited and shaped like any curve or line segment. The stroke or “hull” surrounding the spine can have varying widths and end styles. So, it’s great for making blocks with Flying Geese!   First let’s find the Swath tool. Open EQ8 and click Block Worktable Click NEW BLOCK > Applique > Block (you could also choose Motif but in this example we’re using Block). Click the DRAW tab > Drawing Tools > Draw > Swath Position the cursor where you want to begin. Press and hold the left mouse button. Still holding the left mouse button, drag in any direction. (To make the “flying geese” fly right, draw your stroke from left to right. To make

Fall is the time of year when I think of the color orange.  We see it in the changing leaves colors, pumpkins being carved for Halloween, pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice lattes, and much more.  I am not a huge fan of the color orange, but it is effective when used in small doses, blended with other colors, or as the highlight of an entire quilt made of oranges. Open your EQ8 program and give the new project a name called ‘Everything Is Coming Up Orange“.  Click OK at the bottom of the box to apply the project name. You should now see the name of the project at the top of the screen. Click on the project sketchbook icon on the far left side of the screen.  In the box, click on the fabrics heading.  Click on the three little dots in the upper right corner of the project sketchbook. 

This month we’ll be learning more about making borders to go with specific quilt designs. Although EQ8 has LOTS of border options it has even more quilt design options so sometimes you may need to get a little creative with how you design the border. You can use the concepts in this lesson to create unlimited types of borders. Also, make sure you check out this past lesson about borders, too! Let’s start with a basic quilt, and in this example we’re going to extend the Nine Patch design into the borders. Click the BORDERS tab Under Select a Border Style choose Blocks Change the size of the border, in the example the inner border is 1 inch. Change the number of blocks in the border, in the example there are 12 Horizontal and 12 Vertical. If a Nine Patch is set in this border it will be skewed and

In this lesson we’ll cover just a couple landscape quilts, but the general ideas and techniques can be applied to design many different types of landscape quilts. Let’s get started! For the first example we’re basically drawing the whole quilt as one block. Open EQ8 and click Block Worktable Click NEW BLOCK > Pieced & Applique > Easy + Applique Change the size of the block to the size or the same proportions you want for your quilt. In this example, the block is 12 inches x 6 inches (which is in proportion to the finished size of the quilt, set in step 11). The snaps are 24 x 12 (every half inch). The snaps should always be multiples of the block size.You can just make the block the size you want the finished quilt to be but here are some things to take into consideration… • The maximum block

I have so many ideas bubbling up in my head.  I like to teach decorative stitching with a standard sewing machine, digitizing for an embroidery machine, and using the EQ8 program to create the background blocks to work with.  I can’t see all my steps in EQ8 but I can get a good feel for how the blocks will look that I can add further stitch embellishments to later. Open your EQ8 program.  Name your new project “Testing Ideas”. Click the OK at the bottom of the box to name the new project. You will see the name of the new project at the top of the screen. Click on the block worktable icon on the upper right side of the screen.   On the ribbon at the top of the screen, select the ‘pieced & applique’ icon and then select the ‘easy + applique’ icon. My idea is to teach